Specifically, the product may comprise a chair or ottoman and the present invention is concerned with foldable units of the general type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,105,244; 4,269,532; 4,325,577; 4,359,244; 1,676,074; 1,856,759; 1,882,585; 1,925,246; 2,581,793; 2,582,864; 2,837,142; 2,914,111; and 3,711,151.
For the sake of providing an attractive chair which is foldable, and yet sturdy and rigid when in spread position, certain parameters were predetermined which needed to be observed in the design of the present furniture unit. The first of these was that the support legs were to have no bottom runners. A second parameter was that the seat side rails were to be disposed in the vertical plane of the inversely U-shaped side frames when the chair or ottoman was in folded down position. Another requirement for the chair units was that the arm rest portions of the frames pivotally support a back rest which was pivotal to a horizontal position so that the chair could be folded.
Still another parameter considered necessary was the requirement that the chair or ottoman seat be of ample width and have an angle in its normal position which provided at least an inch of differential level in the vertical direction for a person sitting in the seat. Another requirement was the provision of compact unitary braces for each of the pivotally joined vertically inclined cross frames to connect them with the seat side rails and the side frames, and still a further requirement was for cap members for the ends of the seat rails to cover the cavities in the seat rails within which the transverse welt edges of the flexible seat were removably secured. With the seat rails situated in the plane of the side frames, another design parameter involved providing structure for rigidifying the furniture unit when the product was unfolded to spread position by reacting to the weight of a seat occupant to bear against the side frame legs and maintain them in spread apart position.